Featured: Friendly specialist tours to ancient, mystical and historical sites in the UK and beyond

Friendly specialist tours to ancient, mystical and historical sites in the UK and beyond

Random Image


Dolmen d'A Fourna

Megaliths, Stones of Memory

Megaliths, Stones of Memory

Who's Online

There are currently, 365 guests and 0 members online.

You are a guest. To join in, please register for free by clicking here

Sponsors

More Choices

Contribute to our running costs
Webrings
News Feeds
Megalithic Mysteries
Our Online Shop

<< Our Photo Pages >> Long Howe - Long Barrow in Scotland in Orkney

Submitted by howar on Sunday, 22 August 2004  Page Views: 6805

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Long Howe Alternative Name: Langskaill Barrow
Country: Scotland County: Orkney Type: Long Barrow
Nearest Town: Kirkwall  Nearest Village: Toab
Map Ref: HY509060
Latitude: 58.938412N  Longitude: 2.854821W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 3 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 2 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 3

Internal Links:
External Links:

Long Howe
Long Howe submitted by howar : Long Howe with Round Howe's outer edge in the near foreground. Mine Howe is behind this. Orkney HY509060 (Vote or comment on this photo)
Long Barrow in Orkney.
RCAHMS NMRS record HY50NW 61 is probably a kerbed bowl barrow and the main body is 7.7x7.1m.

Most of the exposed stones are unseen from the road as they are at the back, so I was glad of a chance to finally see them on the Mine Howe open day. I don't know about kerbed but it certainly feels a little 'terraced' and the lines of stonework, if we may deign to call them that, seem to bear this out. The stones become more obvious as you near the Mine Howe end.
At HY51010599 they are especially big and present a structured appearance. Two stones are one above another at an obtuse angle, though not fully overlapping, and visible of the top one on the left is 1.8x0.9x0.2m and of the lower one 1.5x0.2x0.2m. There is a space of about half a metre beneath them but no void to be seen, only comparatively smaller stones. To the right of this 'overhang' are yet more stones, though I could not tell whether these were in connection with or seperate or perhaps more of that 'terracing'.
The Bronze Age cist on top of the mound is presently being excavated Though the general area has possibly suffered damage from livestock it is a little beauty, 50x20 by 50cm deep, atop the barrow at the end nearest Round Howe. I imagine this to be the known cist mentioned in the NMRS.
There is a small area excavated around it and a bigger area downslope, mostly to the left of the cist, in which are exposed several (what for the moment I'd call) flags contiguous in a circular manner. The young lady said they found flint chippings on the cover slab and on the inside, but nowhere else in the vicinity. No human remains have been found as yet, though as the bottom is a bit smashed up they believe these could be in a pit further down still.
What marks the cist out as unusual is that there is no back slab. I was minded on the Nev Hill round cairn. However on re-reading Davidson and Henshall I find that there it was the back slab to a chamber which was absent, being explained by an arc of drystone walling thereabouts apparently continuing as part of a semicircular rear wall.

You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page. To see the most up to date information please register for a free account.


Long Howe
Long Howe submitted by howar : Cist and kerb of barrow from 2004 dig (Vote or comment on this photo)

Long Howe
Long Howe submitted by howar : two large interleaved stones' 'structure' and possibly associated stones (Vote or comment on this photo)

Long Howe
Long Howe submitted by howar : vertical slice of possible terracing, back of 'structure' visible (Vote or comment on this photo)

Long Howe
Long Howe submitted by howar : line of stones going uphill at right end of saddle Orkney HY509060 (Vote or comment on this photo)

Long Howe
Long Howe submitted by howar : saddle section Orkney HY509060 (Vote or comment on this photo)

Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.
Click here to see more info for this site

Nearby sites

Click here to view sites on an interactive OS map

Key: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed

Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)

To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.


Turn off the page maps and other distractions

Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 150m SW 232° Round Howe* Broch or Nuraghe (HY50780591)
 165m E 81° Mine Howe* Chambered Cairn (HY5106406023)
 223m WSW 243° Burn of Langskaill* Ancient Village or Settlement (HY507059)
 223m NNE 26° Stem Howe* Round Barrow(s) (HY510062)
 315m ENE 71° Longhowe Cairn (HY512061)
 582m NNE 30° Hawell Burnt Mound* Round Barrow(s) (HY512065)
 598m W 269° Brymer* Round Barrow(s) (HY503060)
 805m N 352° Nearhouse* Ancient Village or Settlement (HY508068)
 1.1km NE 48° Muckle Crofty* Stone Row / Alignment (HY517067)
 1.1km E 89° Breck Farm* Standing Stones (HY520060)
 1.6km NE 37° Loch of Messigate* Standing Stones (HY519073)
 2.0km WNW 296° Craw Howe* Cairn (HY491069)
 2.0km N 11° Mill Sand* Standing Stones (HY513080)
 2.5km N 4° Whitecleat* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (HY511085)
 2.7km SE 134° Campston (Toab)* Broch or Nuraghe (HY528041)
 2.7km WNW 290° Staneloof* Cairn (HY48330698)
 3.0km N 9° The Howie of The Manse* Broch or Nuraghe (HY514090)
 3.2km ESE 117° St. Peter's Bay Mound* Broch or Nuraghe (HY537045)
 3.2km W 276° Heathery Howes* Round Barrow(s) (HY477064)
 3.2km ESE 123° St. Peter's Kirk* Ancient Village or Settlement (HY536042)
 3.3km NNE 23° Grieves Cottage* Standing Stone (Menhir) (HY522090)
 3.3km ESE 122° Campston Cairn* Cairn (HY537042)
 3.5km NNE 21° Loch of Tankerness* Ancient Village or Settlement (HY522093)
 3.6km E 84° Hurnip's Point* Chambered Cairn (HY54480634)
 3.7km ESE 121° Comely* Cairn (HY54040403)
View more nearby sites and additional images

<< Chobham Common (1)

Maesquoy >>

Please add your thoughts on this site

Contribute!

· NEW: I have visited
· I would like to visit
· Submit an Image
· Add a description
· Give accurate position
· Add a comment or news about this site

Lines on the Landscape, Circles from the Sky: Monuments of Neolithic Orkney

Lines on the Landscape, Circles from the Sky: Monuments of Neolithic Orkney

Sponsors

Auto-Translation (Google)

Translate from English into:

"Long Howe" | Login/Create an Account | 4 News and Comments
  
Go back to top of page    Comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.
Re: Long Howe by howar on Thursday, 28 June 2007
(User Info | Send a Message)
After a promising start the expected Mesolithic windfall was a no show, the present hypothesis being that work on the barrow removed most of this previous material. My visit to the excavation left me distinctly underwhelmed. First impression is that a mushroom-cap shaped rise has been revealed that consisted of a layer of small to medium sized flat stones sitting on top of soil (as distinct from embedded in an earth matrix). In the eastern quadrant they have dug through this. Just in front of what seems to be the very decomposed inclined top of a rocky outcrop (reminding me of the geophys lines at the other end of Long Howe) is a 1-2m line of stones that looks to be at least one course of non-drystone walling. Apart from a couple more stones after a small gap it is isolated, doesn't seem to be going anyplace or connecting up with anything else presently visible. Perhaps something later trashed this and the postulated Mesolithic material ?? Walking around to the NW side of the dig (facing the road to Twinness) I saw an irregular shallow narrow trench that I take to be where they looked for a continuation of the previously found stakeholes or else the originals.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Long Howe by Anonymous on Thursday, 21 June 2007
Went by yesterday and saw that this year's dig had just started, a JCB having cleared a strip atop the mound behind where the cist was uncovered last time and levels being taken. Today Radio Orkney reports that a great number of Mesolithic tools have come to light, though presently this is thought to represent a refurbishment workshop rather than a factory per se (http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/radioscotland/console/index.shtml?listen=/scotland/radioscotland/media/news/orkney). They urgently require volunteers to sieve the whole of the spoil heap for microliths missed by the main thrust of the excavation (weekdays only, leave message at Orkney College for Caroline Wickham Jones).
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Long Howe by Anonymous on Thursday, 21 June 2007
    dig due to end 29th of June
    [ Reply to This ]

Re: Long Howe by howar on Wednesday, 30 August 2006
(User Info | Send a Message)
A lithic specialist identified the flint chippings as being of Mesolithic manufacture. Though these are obviously re-used they were read as evidence for there having been a nearby settlement of this date (I wonder how old the relict dunes/shorelines at HY522071 on the coast towards the Point of the Liddle are) though it called to mind the stoneworking site hard by the Unstan tomb. No pit was found underneath but some kind of slot emerged instead. The holes could perhaps be from a Mesolithic bivouac but could equally well be connected to the kerbed cairn. To see where the cist is when the dig is done simply find the block of stone bordered by two incised lines in the roadside wall (perhaps from St.Ninian's chapel) and look straight across.
[ Reply to This ]

Your Name: Anonymous [ Register Now ]
Subject:


Add your comment or contribution to this page. Spam or offensive posts are deleted immediately, don't even bother

<<< What is five plus one as a number? (Please type the answer to this question in the little box on the left)
You can also embed videos and other things. For Youtube please copy and paste the 'embed code'.
For Google Street View please include Street View in the text.
Create a web link like this: <a href="https://www.megalithic.co.uk">This is a link</a>  

Allowed HTML is:
<p> <b> <i> <a> <img> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <tt> <li> <ol> <ul> <object> <param> <embed> <iframe>
We would like to know more about this location. Please feel free to add a brief description and any relevant information in your own language.
Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.